Quebec recently passed Bill 96, which aims to aggressively promote the French language in the province. It establishes French as the only official language in the province, meaning you’ll need to speak it to receive government services. Generally speaking, the bill aims to make the province less amenable to English-only speakers, which describes a lot of the people in the video game industry as much of the workforce is recruited from out of province. Quebec will be investing in new resources to help people learn French, but according to a new article from the CBC, there is widespread concern about what this could mean for the Quebec/Montreal video game scene. Ubisoft has already had to raise pay in order to retain workers, and the worry is the new French-language laws may make it even harder to recruit talent. While Canada as a whole will undoubtedly remain a desirable place to make games, it seems likely a number of studios now located within Quebec may move to other provinces. While the Video Game Guild of Quebec is generally supportive of Bill 96, they’re also worried about the potential message being sent… Do they stay or do they go? It will certainly be interesting to see how video game companies that have invested so much in Quebec might pivot following Bill 96.
